Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to print control technology, and particularly relates to a print control apparatus which executes a conversion process from a page description language (hereinafter also referred to as PDL) to another page description language (PDL), and technology pertaining thereto.
Description of the Related Art
In a printer driver, a process for converting a PDL to another PDL may be performed.
For example, a conversion process from extensible markup language (XML) paper specification (XPS) to printer command language (PCL) may be performed (see JP 2014-241118 A). When performing such a conversion process, “XPS to PCL filter” (hereinafter also referred to as standard filter) provided by Microsoft Corporation is usually used. It is preferable to use the standard filter from the viewpoint of ensuring compatibility and/or improving development efficiency, and the like.
In some cases, a background pattern or the like (an image configured of a repeat of a unit image) is included in a document to be printed.
However, there is a problem that when XPS data for printing such a background pattern or the like (an image configured of a repeat of a unit image) is converted into PCL by using the standard filter, a data amount increases.
For example, although a “background pattern” is described with image data of a unit image and a repeat command for the data in XPS data, the “background pattern” is expanded to a plurality of image data in PCL data converted by the standard filter. As a result, a data amount of the converted PCL data increases. The increase in data amounts leads to an increase in a communication load, an increase in communication time, and the like in data transmission from a print control apparatus (personal computer) including a printer driver therein to print-out apparatus (image forming apparatus or the like).
The problem of increased data amounts in PDL conversion processes is not limited to a conversion process from XPS to PCL, and may occur in various conversion processes.